In China, pharma hires thousands of doctors to sell drugs
Filed under: Government, Hot Health Headline, Public health
Bloomberg News reports that pharmaceutical companies in China are poaching thousands of trained physicians, many of them recent grads, to become sales representatives in the massive push to take advantage of China’s exploding drug market. The companies can offer salaries that are two to three times those the physicians would earn otherwise, and Bloomberg’s sources estimate that as many as 14,000 more Chinese doctors will become marketers in the coming five years.
The hiring boom is hampering China’s three-year, $131 billion effort to stem a massive shortage of doctors in rural and peripheral areas and provide basic health insurance to at least 90 percent of the population. Paradoxically, it’s that same push, and the demand for drugs that it has created, that’s providing the incentive for big pharma’s Chinese campaigns. One pharmaceutical representative told Bloomberg that China is expected to overtake the United States as his company’s largest market within the decade, and companies have been budgeting accordingly.
Foreign drugmakers like Sanofi and their local affiliates will hire at least 35,000 sales staff by the end of 2014, Aon Hewitt China estimates, based on a survey of 24 companies. The same employers had 33,000 on staff at the end of 2010. About 30 to 40 percent of people recruited for sales jobs will have a medical degree, said Jarroad Zhang, a consulting director with Aon Hewitt in Shanghai.
Reporter uncovers $86 million from insurers to fight reform
Filed under: Health care reform, Health journalism
The flow of money into politics in general, and health reform in particular, has been thoroughly opaque this election season, yet Bloomberg’s Drew Armstrong has still managed to pull back the curtain and figure out that insurers gave $86 million to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which then lobbied heavily to either hamstring reform or to reshape it in the insurers’ favor. Armstrong traced the money to America’s Health Insurance Plans through classic reporting tools: public records and well-placed sources.
Tax forms require organizations to list only the amounts granted or received from other groups, not the organizations’ identities. Health insurers expressed opposition to parts of the health-care legislation while they conferred with congressional Democrats writing the bill and the White House. At the same time, the Chamber of Commerce was advertising its opposition.
The Chamber spent $45.5 million on a campaign against the bill in 2009, according to TNS Media Intelligence/Campaign Media Analysis Group, an Arlington, Virginia-based company that tracks political advertising.
The Chamber began in March 2010, weeks before the bill became law, another $10 million effort focused on pressuring lawmakers to vote against the bill. Blair Latoff, a spokeswoman for the Chamber, wouldn’t say how much of the money was spent in 2009 and how much, if any, was used in 2010.
Health care reporting among SABEW winners
Health care reporting fared well in this year’s Society of American Business Editors and Writers Best in Business Writing competition as the business of health care took center stage in many publications and earned awards for both breaking news and in-depth packages. The health-related winners:
Breaking news
Real-time News Organizations
- Dow Jones Newswires: “Deep Coverage On Drug Deal”
- Reuters: “H1N1 Flu: The Global Story”
Enterprise
Small Publications
- Sarasota Herald-Tribune: “Contaminated Chinese drywall”
Weekly Publications
- Pittsburgh Business Times: “Eli Lilly details payments to docs”
Projects
Giant Publications
- The New York Times: “Toxic Waters”
Large Publications
- Dallas Morning News: “The Cost of Care”
Magazine Enterprise
Small
- Bloomberg Markets: “Big Pharma’s Crime Spree”
Bloomberg explains all five House, Senate plans
Filed under: Government, Health care reform, Health policy, Hot Health Headline
Bloomberg’s Kristin Jensen and Nicole Gaouette have perused all five proposed health care reform plans, each originating from a different committee in either the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives, and were kind enough to explain exactly what they have in common and what they don’t.
In case you’re wondering, they all come with an individual mandate, expanded coverage, comparative effectiveness, increased regulation of insurers and cost-cutting measures. They differ in terms of budget, funding, a public option and an employer mandate.
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- Numbers reveal how often, or how rarely, states check doctors’ disciplinary records
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